Epictetus (c. 55 – c. 135 AD), born a slave, was a Greek Stoic philosopher. His words were recorded by his student Arrian in the Discourses and Enchiridion written in the early 2nd-century.
Biography information from
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Portrait adapted from
Wikimedia Commons, Theodoor Galle (Public domain / CC0)
Also Known As
Native Name:
ΕΠΙΚΤΗΤΟΣ
Alternative Names:
Epictetus of Hierapolis
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Epiktetos
Don’t you want to be free of all that? [33] ‘But how can I do it?’ You’ve often heard how – you need to suspend desire completely, and train aversion only on things within your power. You should dissociate yourself from everything outside yourself – the body, possessions, reputation, books, applause, as well as office or lack of office. Because a preference for any of them immediately makes you a slave, a subordinate, and prone to disappointment.
لا تكن كالأطفال آنًا فيلسوفًا، ثُمَّ جابيًا، ثُمَّ خطيبًا، ثُمَّ موظَّفًا لقيصر؛ فهذه الأشياء لا تَتَّسِق. إنما عليك أن تكون شخصًا واحدًا، جَيِّدًا أو رديئًا. إما أن تُنمِّي ملَكَتك العقلية، وإما أن تُنمِّي أشياءك الخارجية. إمَّا أن تنصرف إلى الأشياء الداخلية وإما إلى الأشياء الخارجية؛ أي إنك إمَّا أن تكون أحدَ الفلاسفة، وإمَّا أن تكون أحدَ السُّوقة.
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What upsets people is not things themselves but their judgments about the things. For example, death is nothing dreadful (or else it would have appeared dreadful to Socrates), but instead the judgment about death that it is dreadful — that is what is dreadful. So when we are thwarted or upset or distressed, let us never blame someone else but rather ourselves, that is, our own judgments. An uneducated person accuses others when he is doing badly; a partly educated person accuses himself, an educated person accuses neither someone else nor himself.
